


v/iii

by roisale



Category: Haikyuu!!
Genre: Hogwarts AU, M/M, background kurodai as always, it's the fucking mistletoe cliche bc i'm gay and weak and i HAD TO DO IT DON'T LOOK AT ME
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-08-31
Updated: 2014-08-31
Packaged: 2018-02-15 13:10:35
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,827
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2230281
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/roisale/pseuds/roisale
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>"Okay, pucker up, Chikara," Nishinoya says, the prospect not daunting him in the least.</p><p>"You did not just say that," Ennoshita tells him, aghast. If there were a list of things not to say before kissing someone, 'pucker up' would most definitely be on that list; underlined, highlighted, and in size 36 font. Nishinoya does not look particularly concerned about this fact. In retrospect, Ennoshita's not sure why he thought Nishinoya would look any other way. He tries again. "I mean, okay, you did just say that, but I kind of wish you hadn't."</p><p>(or: magic's a lot of power to give to teenage boys [specifically, Kuroo and Bokuto] when mistletoe is involved.)</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. fifteen's your last shot at invincibility

"Happy birthday, Chikara!" Nishinoya tugs at the edge of Ennoshita's robes. "Come with me for a bit, would you?"

Ennoshita spends ten seconds in consideration, which is nine seconds too long, because Nishinoya grabs him by the wrist before Ennoshita can reply, and then they're rushing past creaky suits of armor and hungover paintings.  
  
"So where are we going?" Ennoshita asks after they round the corner. They both ignore the feeble groan coming from Sir Cadogan's portrait.   
  
"Somewhere _nice_ ," Nishinoya says, which answers approximately _nothing_. He looks back at Ennoshita and adds, "It's like a birthday present, since people only ever give you Christmas ones! You'll like it a lot, and - _wait_ ," he stops, turns around to inspect Ennoshita with his mouth pulled to one side, "Do you have your camera on you?"  
  
"No," Ennoshita says, wondering if he looks the type to carry a camera on his person at all times. He hopes he doesn't.

"Go get it," Nishinoya says, insistent, and Ennoshita sighs, redoubling his tracks back to the Slytherin common room.   
  
"Just wait outside for a bit," Ennoshita tells him, and Nishinoya nods, an undercurrent of impatience thrumming through his voice when he says, _okay, I'll wait, but hurry up, would you?_  
  
("You're back early," Akaashi says, tone dry, and Ennoshita flicks his eyes towards the door with a raise of his eyebrows. Akaashi nods and settles deeper into his arm chair.)  
  
Nishinoya drags him past the main corridors and ducks into a side hall that Ennoshita's never been through _._ It's a dead end, and there's nothing particularly special about the hallway save for a tapestry to the side. Of course, Nishinoya heads straight for the tapestry and Ennoshita's a little afraid he's going to run smack into it even though he knows Nishinoya's not stupid enough to just walk into a solid wall. The wall ends up being less solid than Ennoshita had thought it would be, which is to say, it's not a wall, but a secret passageway of sorts. _That's new_ , he thinks, though he has to wonder how Nishinoya found it in the first place.  
  
They walk through twists and turns and winding staircases Ennoshita almost falls down ("Careful, there's a missing step - oh, _shit_ , are you okay?" "I will be when I get _out_ , and it'd go a lot faster if you helped me,") and Nishinoya leads him through one last turn into an alcove that looks like it's been empty for years.  
  
It's the pretty kind of decay, all crumbling stones and frost edging into the castle from where the window's cracked and broken. A lonely suit of armor that's more rust than iron stands a solitary watch under a picture frame without a portrait. Ennoshita brushes aside a few cobwebs from the painting, leaves accidental tracks in the settled dust. It's not the kind of place he'd've expected Nishinoya to find, much less appreciate, but Nishinoya says, "So I found this place the other day and I thought you'd like it, you're really into this kind of stuff, right?"  
  
"Yeah," Ennoshita says, watching the snow fall onto the Great Lake through the scratched up windowpane. He reaches out to press his fingers against the glass and see if it's real, see if he hadn't fallen out of time and back. But there's this shimmery sort of resistance, and Ennoshita feels the foreboding trickle down his back like a spill of cold water before he looks up. A cluster of mistletoe stares him dead in the face.  
  
" _Who_ put mistletoe here," he says, feeling his eye twitch. "Who _does_ that?" _Kuroo and Bokuto do that, Kuroo and Bokuto have been doing it since they got here, you should know_ , the little voice at the back of his head tells him. He dismisses it for now in favor of righteous affront.  
  
"Oh," Nishinoya says, following his gaze upwards. "Didn't see that last time I was here."  
  
"Unbelievable," Ennoshita says under his breath. He finds some solace in the fact that this time around, they're not in the middle of a crowded hall with half the school egging them on. It is perhaps the smallest comfort he's ever come across in his life.  
  
Nishinoya's got his head tilted to one side, though, as if the solution to their problem's as simple as this: "Well," he says with a shrug, "We've done this before, so we can just do it again, right?"  
  
Ennoshita rubs the back of his neck, feeling inclined to disagree. Nishinoya has a point, he knows - Ennoshita's first kiss was with him, in almost the exact same scenario, so another one shouldn't be much of an issue. But he's a little afraid because - they're not thirteen this time, and he  _wants_ to kiss Nishinoya this time - so he can't, that'd be like taking advantage of him, he's not supposed to _do_ that, Nishinoya doesn't even know, Nishinoya -  
  
Nishinoya's standing with expectancy written all over his face, his cheeks flushed from the cold draft seeping in through the broken window, and his eyes are almost too wide as he waits. Ennoshita thinks there's a certain kind of charm in the way Noya's breaths puff out white and come up to frame his face like he's standing in fog. It doesn't wash him out, though; nothing like that ever happens with Nishinoya. He's so _bright_  and full of life and color and - he's supposed to be out of place in this gray castle corner that's two parts ruin and eight parts beauty. But instead, helooks a lot like he belongs here, looks a lot like he'd belong anywhere so long as he was close enough to touch.  
  
Close enough to touch - Nishinoya's close enough to touch, and Ennoshita thinks he knows where he wants him to belong. He finds himself leaning in again, just like he did two years ago.  
  
Nishinoya is warm against his lips (soft, Ennoshita thinks; his lips are softer than they look, softer than they'd been last time) when he kisses him. They stand there for a few long minutes, catching their fingers loose against each other in the wind. Nishinoya brings his hands up to Ennoshita's shirt, hooks slender fingers in the fabric of his collar and grazes his thumbs along the jut of Ennoshita's collarbones. A shiver that has nothing to do with the temperature falls from the base of Ennoshita's neck, comes down to settle in the small of his back.  
  
He opens his eyes, pulling away. There is something gentle in the sweep of Nishinoya's eyelashes when he lifts his face up and the part of his mouth when he huffs out another breath. The air tastes a little sweeter, like if the snow outside was made of sugar instead, and a funny twinge twists itself up all knotted and tight in Ennoshita's chest.  
  
Nishinoya blinks up at him, doesn't say a word. Ennoshita counts six heartbeats, thumping loud in his ears, before Nishinoya opens his mouth again. "Hey, Chikara," he says, his voice quiet and low. Ennoshita can only listen and wish the butterflies in his stomach hadn't taken flight all at once.   
  
"Yeah," Ennoshita says, feeling his face burn when he meets Nishinoya's eyes. He's not - sure what to do when Nishinoya's still like this, he's not sure what it _means_ when Nishinoya winds down, slow and silent, which areboth things Ennoshita isn't used to him being, both things Nishinoya just _isn't_.  
  
"I really like you," Nishinoya says, straightforward and blunt and raw and _honest._ Ennoshita wonders if he could take a picture right here and now and just keep everything about it, from the chill that's settling on his skin to the tumultuous flip-flop of his heart. He knows Nishinoya's waiting for an answer, but he's - afraid, and he doesn't even know _why;_ afraid he's not enough, maybe, but it'd be too remiss of him to leave Nishinoya hanging, so he takes a deep breath in preparation.  
  
But Nishinoya looks so serious and hopeful, like he's offering up his heart and all Ennoshita has to do is _take_ it, that's it, that's _all,_ and isn't that the easiest thing? Every last reserve in Ennoshita just - falls apart, falls to bits and pieces he'll never be able to put back together, like the mortar and stones under their feet and he swears he can't help the terribly fond smile he's giving Nishinoya instead. "Yeah," Ennoshita says, feeling a lot like a grade schooler, dizzy and spun silly on puppy love, "I really like you, too."  
  
So Ennoshita is newly sixteen when he kisses Nishinoya for a second time (and a third and a fourth and then he loses track), under a forgotten archway thick with dust and cold and the sound of solitude.  
  
(He does take a picture, later; it's the one picture he won't hang up - he'd rather keep it safe.) 


	2. thirteen's a shit age to be

"Oh," Ennoshita says, stopping just before the Great Hall. "I'm supposed to go see Professor Takeda, you can go on without me - "  
  
"Nah, that's okay." Nishinoya shakes his head, popping another piece of fudge from Hogsmeade into his mouth. "I'll go with you! He said he had to talk to me about one of my exams, anyway."  
  
"That's because your answers never make any _sense_ ," Ennoshita says, remembering the one time he'd tried to tutor Nishinoya when they were second years. He can tell Nishinoya's thinking about it, too, because he avoids eye contact with Ennoshita for the next few seconds as they make their way through the stream of students heading towards the Great Hall.   
  
Right as he's passing under an archway leading to a side path nobody uses, Ennoshita stubs his toe on _-_ nothing, there's nothing visibly in his way, but he hears the murmurs in the background grow loud. He turns around to see what looks like half the school gathering around them.   
  
 _Oh no_ , he thinks, apprehension crawling down his spine. He's not sure he wants to look up.  
  
Nishinoya does it for him. "Hey, Chikara," he starts, and Ennoshita hopes with all his might that Nishinoya's about to say something mundane and unimportant and _not_ life-ruining. What he actually says is, "Look, it's mistletoe!"  
  
Ennoshita catches a glimpse of Kuroo, peeking around the corner with _infuriating_ delight spreading across his face, and he resists the urge to scowl. Bokuto's hovering just behind him. Of course it was them, of _course_ they'd go around sticking mistletoe to archways and charming the space, how _typical_. He wonders what kind of kick they're getting out of this, 'this' meaning: trapping two people under mistletoe until they cave in and kiss.   
  
"Okay, pucker up, Chikara," Nishinoya says _,_ the prospect not daunting him in the least.  
  
"You did _not_ just say that," Ennoshita tells him, aghast. If there were a list of things _not_ to say before kissing someone, 'pucker up' would most definitely be on that list, underlined, highlighted, and in size 36 font. Nishinoya does not look particularly concerned about this fact. In retrospect, Ennoshita's not sure why he thought Nishinoya would look any other way. He tries again. "I mean, okay, you did just say that, but I kind of wish you hadn't."  
  
Kinoshita and Narita edge towards the front of the crowd, Tanaka inches behind them. Kinoshita cups his hands around his mouth, calls, "You can do it," in what Ennoshita thinks is supposed to be encouragement, and he wants to tell Kinoshita it's not working. Or would that be rude? He's starting to think he doesn't care.  
  
Nishinoya's stretching up on his tiptoes, and his face is _too close, too close, too close -_ Ennoshita reaches out on reflex and covers Nishinoya's face with his hand. "Let's not do that," he says, trying to buy time.  
  
"But we can't get out unless we kiss," Nishinoya says, muffled under the palm over his face, and god, Ennoshita hates that he's right.  
  
Somewhere in the background, Tanaka's yelling " _Go for gold,_ " and Narita's mouthing, _I'm sorry, but just do it and get it over with,_ and Ennoshita heaves a great big sigh, letting his hand drop from Nishinoya's face. Nishinoya gives him a _why'd you do that_ look and the hallway's filling up to the ceiling with a growing chorus ofchants, like they're watching a matador fight instead of two thirteen year old boys stuck under mistletoe.  
  
" _Fine_ ," Ennoshita grouses, figuring that trying to keep his pride (and also, his first kiss) isn't worth missing lunch for. Nishinoya's eyes go wide for a split second when Ennoshita moves in, like he hadn't been expecting it. Ennoshita kind of wants to warn him, out of common courtesy, that he's got no clue what he's doing, _none whatsoever_ , but it's too late to back out and he can feel Nishinoya's breath tickling at his neck and -  
  
It's a light kind of kiss, just a brush of lips and a clack of teeth when Nishinoya misjudges the distance between their faces. Ennoshita's not sure he has the courage or the knowledge to attempt more, and also Nishinoya's lips are kind of chapped, but it's winter and winter is dry, so Ennoshita will forgive. He starts to think that maybe he'd been stressing a little too much about the whole thing. The light pressure of Nishinoya's lips against his isn't entirely unpleasant and besides, Nishinoya'd just been eating candy, so he tastes a little like strawberry fudge and oh, there goes his rationality, doesn't it?  
  
The barrier dissipates around them when he opens his eyes, and he pulls away with his ears going hot at the tips. He can hear the entire goddamn hallway start to _cheer_. "That was - that was enough, right," Ennoshita tries to say, losing his own words in the noise, and Nishinoya tilts his head to the side, indicating he hadn't heard the question. Ennoshita finds himself rubbing the back of his neck. "Never mind," he says, loud enough to cut through the ruckus this time around. Kuroo levels a smirk at him and Ennoshita sighs, turning away to make his way down the hallway to go see Professor Takeda like he's supposed to. He raises a hesitant hand to his mouth, because that hadn't been - that hadn't been anything big, but it wasn't bad. It felt - nice, almost, if he lets himself think about it long enough, which is his cue to halt _all_ thought process.  
  
And he doesn't see the way Nishinoya stays standing below the mistletoe for a while longer, staring after him with his eyes huge and the start of a smile tugging at the corners of his lips like he hasn't noticed that it's there _quite_  yet.   
  
"Wait up," Nishinoya's calling, and Ennoshita almost regrets it when he does, because waiting up means looking at Nishinoya's _face_ , and he had  _not_  been ready for that. He ducks his head to the side and keeps his eyes focused on the space in front of him. They knock on Professor Takeda's door, but if Ennoshita's being honest, he's not sure he remembers any of what they talked about when they walk out ten minutes later and make their way towards the dining hall.  
  
He tries not to think about Nishinoya's loopy grin for the rest of the day, tries even harder not to think about how he'd - kissed him in front of a hundred people, how he'd kissed him and _liked_ it. He eats with the wrong fork during lunch (in his defense, there is no reason why anyone should need more than one fork to eat), and he shouldn't be this _distracted_ , he _shouldn't_. He'd kind of entertained the thought that he was more - reasonable; he'd thought he was the kind of person who wouldn't get all flustered over something like this, but _hell_ if he knows why he can't stop _thinking_  about it.  
  
"Ennoshita?" Daichi's giving him a concerned look, and Ennoshita feels the fork slip between his fingers and drop to his plate with a clatter.  
  
"It's called being young, Sawamura," Kuroo says, leaning over Daichi's shoulder. "You should try it sometime."  
  
"Kuroo, you're fourteen. Go back to your own table," Daichi says, flicking Kuroo's tie out of the way so he can spear a forkful of food from his plate. Ennoshita watches the blue and bronze fabric sway back and forth for a moment before Kuroo shrugs and straightens up. Daichi watches him leave with a half-grimace on his face before he asks Ennoshita, "You feeling okay?"  
  
"Yeah," Ennoshita lies. He swallows down a gulp of tea from the glass next to him.  
  
"Ennoshita," Akaashi says, "That's my cup."  
  
"Oh," Ennoshita says. "Sorry, do you want mine, I haven't touched it - wait, do you like pumpkin juice - ?"  
  
"It's fine," Akaashi says, to both his apology and the pumpkin juice, and he takes Ennoshita's drink without another word. Ennoshita winces.  
  
So he's kind of a mess, but if anyone else notices, they're kind enough not to say.

**Author's Note:**

> don't,,, look at me


End file.
